Turkish Poachers Shoot Down Lesser Spotted Eagle East of Ankara
Hamburg, August 17, 2010. The Lesser Spotted Eagle stood no chance when it was targeted by a poacher in Turkey, east of Ankara, just a few days ago.
The man brought the bird down from the sky with a shotgun blast. Bleeding, the animal tumbled to the earth, struck the ground hard near a road, and died a miserable death hours later from its severe injuries. "The Lesser Spotted Eagle could be identified immediately thanks to its ring," says Margit Meergans, a Lesser Spotted Eagle expert at the German Wildlife Foundation. "The eagle bore the ring number Latvia ET 2189 Riga and a wing tag numbered 42; it had been ringed two years ago in the Teiči Nature Reserve in Latvia by our partner, Dr. Bergmanis." The shooting and the identity of the Lesser Spotted Eagle have now been officially confirmed by Turkish authorities.
For the conservation of the Lesser Spotted Eagle, every poached bird represents a severe loss. "The small, particularly shy Lesser Spotted Eagle is among the most endangered bird species of all. It has long held a place on the Red Lists of breeding birds and is considered threatened with extinction," says Margit Meergans. Today, there are only about one hundred breeding pairs left in Germany. In Latvia the core area of the Lesser Spotted Eagle population the German Wildlife Foundation helps designate breeding forests as micro-reserves. In total, around 50 breeding forests have been secured in this way over the past four years.
German Wildlife Foundation calls for better protection of birds of prey along their migratory routes
Consequently, there is great dismay in Teiči, Latvia, as well. "Can the poacher imagine the amount of personal effort, passion, and concern that goes into our work to protect the lesser spotted eagle?" asks Dr. Ugis Bergmanis, head of the research department at the Teici Nature Reserve administration. When the bird that was killed hatched two years ago, food was scarce. "It was a hot summer. The parent birds could barely find any amphibians." They struggled to catch enough frogs and mice to rear the young bird. "To shield the chick—with its sparse downy feathers—from the scorching sun, the parent birds took turns using their wings to form a sort of parasol," Bergmanis recounts. The delicate chick soon grew into a magnificent eagle and set off on its first journey to its wintering grounds in Africa, some 10,000 kilometres away. That is where lesser spotted eagles spend the winter months. "Only about ten percent of all young birds survive their first year," explains Meergans. "It is all the more tragic, then, that this young eagle was poached while flying back to its breeding grounds in Central Europe." The German Wildlife Foundation (Deutsche Wildtier Stiftung) and its partners are deeply concerned about the repeated poaching of lesser spotted eagles in southeastern Turkey. Shooting these rare eagles is a criminal offense under Turkish law as well. "Turkey must finally put a stop to this poaching," the German Wildlife Foundation demanded, having lodged a formal protest with the Turkish government.
Additional information: The German Wildlife Foundation thanks the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU) for its financial support of the project. Protecting these rare birds would not be possible without the commitment of the partners and sponsors supporting the German Wildlife Foundation’s Lesser Spotted Eagle project. German project partners include: World Working Group on Birds of Prey and Owls (Prof. Dr. Meyburg [Chair], Prof. Dr. Kai Graszynski); Brandenburg State Environmental Agency (Dr. Torsten Langgemach [Head of the Brandenburg State Bird Conservation Station], Paul Sömmer [Head of the Nature Conservation Station], Dr. Scheller); and the SALIX Environmental and Landscape Planning office (Teterow, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania).
Press contact: German Wildlife Foundation (Deutsche Wildtier Stiftung)
Images in the article:
Juvenile Lesser Spotted Eagles: German Wildlife Foundation / F. Koschewski
Adult Lesser Spotted Eagle: German Wildlife Foundation / E. Hoyer
Eva Goris, Press Officer, Billbrookdeich 216, 22113 Hamburg, Phone: 040 73339-1874, Fax: 040 7330278,
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